In an operating room a sterile environment must be established and maintained. Everything which is in the operating or sterile field must be sterilized. Certain items are sterilized after each use. Also many sterile disposable items are employed in the operating room. These include disposable needles, needle count boxes, operating room clothing and the like. It is frequently more economical to use disposable sterile items as opposed to sterilizing reusable items.
Unfortunately, this is impossible with large expensive items used in the operating room. Fixtures such as carts, light fixtures, faucets with faucet handles and the like cannot be made disposable. Any item which is touched by the surgeon or anyone else who enters the sterile field of an operation must be sterilized.
The handles of operating room light fixtures are removable so that in between each operation they can be removed and sterilized thus maintaining the sterile field. This is particularly disadvantageous. It requires very expensive personnel time and sterilizing equipment. Further, one must purchase many additional handles which are very expensive.
To overcome this problem with, in particular light fixture handles, there is currently marketed a disposable cover for a light handle as is disclosed in Sandel U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,124. The sterile cover disclosed in this patent requires that the handle for a light fixture be replaced with a specially shaped light handle which has a bell shaped portion. The cover in turn mates with the bell shaped portion holding it in place. Adhesive can also be used with this to hold it in place.
This is particularly inefficient and wasteful in that the original handle of a light fixture must be replaced with a handle specifically adapted for the cover.